The inventive concept relates generally to nonvolatile memory devices and methods of sensing data in same.
The demand for semiconductor memory devices capable of random data access while also providing high memory cell integration and high data storage capacity continues to increase. In this context, flash memory is mainly used in portable electronic devices as a replacement for conventional dynamic random access memory (DRAM). Other possible replacements include the ferroelectric RAM (FRAM) using a ferroelectric capacitor, the magnetic RAM (MRAM) using a tunneling magneto-resistive (TMR) film, and the phase-change memory device using chalcogenide alloys. The phase-change memory device provides a type of resistive memory cell that is relatively simple to manufacture and may be realized in large-capacity memory device at low cost.